BLOOD TIES (Decklan Jennings Thriller Book 1) Read online

  Something was painfully obvious to him now, and it only made things worse.

  People aren’t inherently good.

  CHAPTER 4

  Tired of walking around and having nowhere to go, Decklan decided he was going to go pay his little bro a visit down at the station. He needed to see if there was any progress with the case. It had been less than twenty-four hours but his patience was razor thin.

  As he pulled into the station parking lot, he noticed a bunch of officers standing outside talking and laughing. They were drinking their coffee and not doing a damn thing that looked the slightest bit productive. This pissed Decklan off. He couldn’t understand why they weren’t all out there doing their jobs and trying to track these murderers down.

  This is what my tax dollars are paying for? This is a freaking joke!

  He finally managed his way inside without spouting off any rude or sarcastic comments to the officers. He headed directly for his brother’s office but someone at the front tried stopping him from walking any farther.

  “Excuse me, sir, can I help you?” a smooth voice asked while also placing a hand on Deck’s shoulder.

  “Get your hand off me before I break it,” he responded firmly, well aware he was speaking to a police officer. “I am here to see the chief.”

  “I’m sorry, but he’s in a meeting right now. You are more than welcome to sit in the lobby and wait.”

  “Just tell him that his older brother needs to speak to him. He knows where to find me.”

  He turned around and headed back out the way he came. Wasted energy and nothing to show for it. The frustration was really starting to kick in now for Decklan, which under normal circumstances would be reasonable. But these weren't normal circumstances and he could feel himself starting to spin. He knew he needed to find a place to try and relax and cool off before he did something stupid.

  He jumped into his truck and peeled out of the parking lot, hoping the loud screech of his tires and the smell of burnt rubber might get those lazy-ass cops standing outside to go do their job.

  He headed for one of the local bars. He needed a drink. The only problem was he hadn’t had a drink since his daughter was born. He had a history of making bad decisions when he drank and he was known to get aggressive and mouthy, which was not good considering he was highly trained and extremely dangerous.

  But he didn’t care. Who the hell was he going to disappoint? His wife couldn’t exactly yell at him from six feet under the cold, hard ground.

  Screw it. I’m getting a damn drink.

  He sat down at one of the open stools at the bar. There weren’t many people drinking, considering it was the middle of the day. Only alcoholics and people wanting to drink away their pain drank in the middle of the day, which was exactly what he intended on doing.

  “Hey Decklan, I didn’t know you drank,” the bartender said

  Decklan looked up and recognized the man. His daughter is in the same class as his sweet Sophie… or at least was.

  “Jack neat,” Decklan responded, choosing to ignore the small talk.

  As a bartender, one gets good at reading people, and he could tell Decklan wasn’t in the mood for chitchat. So he just slid a glass in front of Decklan and poured the whisky. Decklan held the glass with both hands and looked into the liquid like he was trying to read words on a page. He could remember all the times drinking had got him in trouble. It almost cost him his life when he was younger. It almost cost him his marriage with Marie. What could it cost him now?

  There’s nothing left to lose, he thought as he tasted whiskey for the first time in years.

  He threw it back like a shot and placed the glass back down on the bar.

  “Another one please,” he said with no emotion, tapping the top of the glass.

  Again he slammed it back, wasting no time. After two more, he started to feel the buzz, which was usually his indication to stop before it was too late… but he didn’t. He pounded two more before the bartender cut him off.

  “Let me call you a car,” the bartender said.

  “I’m fine. I’ll just walk it off.” Decklan said.

  He paid his tab, stumbled off his stool and headed for the door. As he was going to push the door open, a few guys walked in and one of them bumped Decklan harder than he cared for.

  They were obviously a group of douchebag friends who probably thought they were a bunch of tough guys. Unfortunately for them, Decklan Jennings wasn’t the kind of guy you wanted to bump into. Despite being intoxicated, he could still handle himself better than ninety-nine percent of people.

  As he stumbled back a couple of steps, he managed to gain his balance back. In the blink of an eye, he was pissed off to the point of sobering up real quick. He paused for a few seconds and quickly evaluated the situation. He needed to establish who the alpha in the group was so he could take him out first, and it didn’t take long to figure it out.

  Him! That’s the leader of this little boy band.

  Decklan took a few slow but calculated steps forward, hoping his body language would diffuse the situation before it got out of hand.

  “I am going to give you one chance to apologize and get out of my way,” he said clearly, as if he hadn’t had one drop of alcohol.

  The guys looked at each other and started laughing. Clearly these assholes had no idea what they were about to get themselves into.

  “Listen man, just stumble your drunk ass back home and have your fat, ugly wife tuck you into bed before you get yourself hurt,” one of them said arrogantly.

  Decklan’s eyes narrowed as he took another step closer. “Say something like that again. I dare you.”

  It seemed that two of them got the message from Decklan’s tone and they stepped back. However, the one guy that Decklan figured was the little leader of the group didn't back down. This guy had something to prove for some reason, and Decklan’s patience was wearing thin.

  The young guy leaned in and whispered, “Fuck you, buddy.”

  Before he could lean back away, Decklan grabbed him by the back of the neck and held him there, keeping him from moving.

  Then he whispered something back. “This is going to be fun.”

  Decklan landed a hard headbutt right on his nose, busting it wide open and sending the guy stumbling backwards into his two buddies. Then he noticed one of them coming at him from his left, so he kicked the kid’s knee in, grabbed him by the hair and slammed his head through a table.

  That’s two, one more to go.

  The last guy standing hesitated, trying to decide if it was worth it or if he should just back down and get the hell out of there. Then Decklan noticed the guy reaching for something in his waistband. He knew there was only one reason for that. He lunged forward, grabbed the guy's wrist before he had the chance to pull the gun out, and punched him square in the throat. He took the gun away, unloaded it, dropped the mag, and took the gun apart in under five seconds. He tossed it off to the side and headed for the exit.

  Before getting outside, he could see the unmistakable blue lights flashing through the bar windows. Someone called the cops and he was about to get arrested for assault.

  CHAPTER 5

  Morning finally came, which was evident by his splitting headache. Decklan couldn’t wait to hear what his brother had to say about what happened last night. He could hear the disappointment and judgment already.

  Right on cue.

  Parker came over to the holding cell where Decklan was and had the guard let him out. Neither one of them said a word as they walked back to Parker’s office. Once inside, Parker shut the door and closed the blinds so the other officers knew not to disturb him.

  “Deck, what the hell were you thinking? You know what drinking does to you,” Parker said, choosing to speak first.

  “What’s it matter to you, Chief? You haven’t exactly been much help,” Decklan said sharply.

  “Come on, Deck, you know that’s not fa
ir.”

  “Fair. You want to talk to me about fair? Is it fair that someone broke into my house when I wasn’t home to slaughter my family? Is it fair that they made me watch so it would be burned into my memory forever? Is it fair that…”

  “Okay, I get it,” Parker said. “I am just concerned about you. I don’t want you doing anything you might regret. We both know you could have killed those guys last night.”

  Decklan waited before responding.

  “How could I regret something if I don’t have anyone left to disappoint?” Decklan finally responded. “Plus, I knew what I was doing. I wasn’t going to seriously hurt them, but they needed to be taught some manners.”

  “I get it, Deck. But you thought the same thing when we lost Mom and Dad in high school. But you still had me. Even if you didn’t care.”

  “That was a long time ago. I think you turned out just fine, little brother,” Deck snapped back.

  They could both tell this conversation wasn’t getting them anywhere productive, which was the usual theme for them over the years.

  “Am I free to go, Chief Parker?” Deck asked sarcastically.

  “Considering what you just did, you’re lucky no one is pressing any charges,” Parker said.

  Most people would be thrilled by this news, but Decklan was so numb to emotion right now all he wanted to do was get the hell out of there.

  “Just promise me something,” Parker said. “Stay away from the sauce and please don’t get into any more trouble. You might not be so lucky next time.”

  Decklan stood up to leave without acknowledging his brother's statement.

  “See you around, little bro.”

  He was finally out the door and back in his pickup. Parker must have had someone drive it back to the station. It was now day two since his family’s murder and he still had no lead or any idea where to start. The only thing he’d managed to do was get drunk and beat up a few college kids. Not exactly his proudest moment. Unsure of his next move, he decided he would go home to shower and regroup.

  As he approached his driveway, he found himself not being able to drive in. He just stared at his house as if it was some stranger's house that he had never seen before. Maybe it was his house still, but it would never again be his home. He knew the only thing that waited for him inside was pain and silence, but he knew he had to go inside, no matter how badly it might hurt. No matter how badly he wanted to burn it down into a pile of ashes. Plus, the men who did this knew he was still alive and they obviously knew where he lived. What would stop them from coming back to finish him off? He couldn’t know for sure that this wouldn’t be the case, but he assumed that if they wanted him dead they would have killed him when they had him tied to a chair.

  He managed to pull into his driveway and get out of his truck. Now he was standing in front of his door, still not wanting to go inside, but he had no choice. He swung the front door open and looked inside his empty house.

  For you, my bride. For you, baby girl. For you, my son. I will do whatever it takes to make things right. You will soon be able to rest in peace. I promise.

  CHAPTER 6

  This is the first night that Decklan would have to sleep, or try to sleep, in his house since losing his family. He wasn’t sure how he was going to manage to get any rest, let alone sleep through the night, but he knew he had to try. Although he had trained his body and mind to run on little to no sleep, thanks to the special forces, he knew sleep was better than no sleep. He needed to be as sharp as possible mentally and physically if he was going to track the killers down and not die in the process.

  Unfortunately, this would be no easy feat. He couldn’t get his mind to turn off for even a second. He just kept replaying that video in his head over and over again, and blaming himself for not being there to protect his family.

  He just kept thinking about how he would never hear his little princess laugh again. The laugh that would light up his whole world on his worst days. How he would never get to teach his son how to be a man and more importantly how to treat a woman. How he would never get to hold his wife again and tell her how much he loved her and how she was his saving grace. His wife was the only person in the world who could talk him off a cliff and calm him down no matter how bad the situation was. She was the only one who could contain his demons, and she was the reason he didn’t drink himself into an early grave.

  But none of that mattered now. No one was here to keep him in check. He had a way of spiraling out of control like a category four hurricane, destroying anything in his path and leaving nothing behind but destruction.

  His destructive streak started in high school when he and his little brother were left alone after both their parents were taken from them in a fatal car crash. It was then that he experienced his first loss, and he didn’t handle it well. He quickly turned to alcohol and sex. He was drinking any chance he got, and showing up to school drunk half the time.

  On top of that, he was sleeping with most of the girls in school, which was like playing a game of chance. Make one wrong move and everything changes, which is exactly what happened. He got a girl pregnant, but she lost the baby twenty weeks into her pregnancy. His second experience with loss. After continuing with his destructive behavior, he decided he needed a fresh start. He needed to get away and go somewhere new. Right after graduation, he enlisted in the military.

  He told Parker what he was doing and left no room for discussion. He was leaving and Parker would be on his own. Decklan leaving was the main reason for their strained relationship, even after all these years.

  The military was the first place where he felt like he could be his true self. He could channel all his rage and energy into being a soldier. And he loved it. Being a soldier gave him purpose and drive, and he was a damn good soldier.

  Special Forces Army Ranger was his choice. He could remember seeing a YouTube video one time about these guys and he thought they looked like the baddest, toughest, hardest men alive. So this was who he wanted to become. And that was exactly what he did. He graduated at the top of his class, despite not being the fastest guy, or the strongest, or even the smartest. But he had something that very few people have in this life: a relentless will to succeed no matter what.

  The forces taught him many things that he carried with him into his life afterwards. They taught him discipline, but more importantly self-discipline. They taught him how to take extreme ownership of every situation, no matter what, because the buck stops with you. And they taught him loyalty, which was important not only in war but in life.

  He was deployed three times in the span of four years. He got to experience war in the truest form. He lost a lot of friends along the way. After his last deployment, Decklan was almost numb to the feeling of loss. The chance that every soldier would make it back home was almost nonexistent. Unfortunately, no amount of lives lost in battle could have ever prepared him for this. It wasn’t fair, but then again, what did fair even mean?

  Now what? he thought to himself as he was drinking his black coffee at his kitchen table. I have to figure out my next move.

  He still didn't have the first clue who could be behind this. He figured it could be someone from his past that he pissed off, which was easy to do in his line of work. He’d been tagging and bagging bad guys for years. The only thing he could think to do was trace his jobs backwards, starting with his most recent one.

  Okay, two months ago I busted some scumbag drug dealer in New York. He was pissed off and made many threats that seemed baseless and far-fetched. Also, he wasn’t exactly the kind of guy with enough connections or enough street cred to track me and my family all the way down here in South Carolina. Next.

  He ran through job after job in his head and none of them seemed like a logical answer to his burning question. He was done with his coffee but his head was still pounding from the night before. Hangovers have a way of hanging around. He decided he needed rest. He knew he wouldn’t be able
to sleep in his bed that he once shared with his wife.

  The couch looks good enough.

  He slowly made his way over to the couch, where he fell face first onto one of the cushions. He was so exhausted that he was asleep the second he hit the couch.

  “Deck. Wake up. I need you to wake up,” a familiar voice said. “We may have a lead.”

  He slowly opened his eyes, rubbing them to clear his blurry vision.

  “Parker? What the hell are you doing here?” Decklan said.

  “I have been trying to get hold of you for over an hour but you haven’t been picking up your phone, so I decided to come check on you and make sure everything was okay,” Parker said.

  “What time is it?” Deck asked.

  “It’s two in the afternoon,” Parker replied.

  Holy shit, I’ve been asleep for twelve hours.

  “Did you hear what I said?” Parker stressed. “We have a break in the case.”

  This was the second time in as many minutes that he mentioned this, but Decklan was too out of it the first time to comprehend what was being said. This time, he jumped up off the couch like a fire had just been lit under his ass.

  “What’s the lead?” Decklan said, now wide awake.

  “Someone made an anonymous call to the station saying they know who murdered your family.”

  Decklan could feel the inside of his chest pounding, like someone was beating a drum. “Are you serious? Who was it? Who made the call? Who did they say it was?” he asked.

  “We don’t know who made the call, but they did give us an address to meet them at,” Parker replied.

  “What’s the address?” Decklan asked quickly.